While the weary Mir space station may reportedly be allowed to drop from the sky as early as February, MirCorp -- the company with the most to lose from such an eventuality -- remains optimistic.
"MirCorp is still very upbeat on the possibilities," Jeffrey Lenorovitz, spokesman for the Netherlands-based company, told SPACE.com. "There were doubters, but Mircorp's intention as a scrappy private company is to work hard in getting its current and future investors to help continuing to fund the station."
| THE TANGLED WEB |
New reports indicate that the Russians have yet to make a final decision on Mir's future -- if, that is, someone can find the $200 million it will take to keep it aloft.
|
Unless MirCorp can find a sponsor for Dennis Tito's flight, the cash-strapped Russian space authorities might not even have enough money to give the station a proper burial.
. |
The future of Mir has been a matter of somewhat contentious debate forseveral years now, but NASA officials said Tuesday that it appears the fate of Mir this time might be sealed.
. |
the Russian government for the $200 million it will take to keep the station in orbit for another year.As Lenorovitz put it, the "bottom line" is that Russia's General Design Board "had a very positive spin on it. They thought that Mir was still viable for commercial operations."
If not for this renewed support, he said, the advisory council would not have approved the October launch of a pilotless Progress vehicle to carry fuel and supplies to the ailing station -- and, significantly, boost its orbit to
to Russian officials pointing to February as the likely window for Mir's return to Earth.In particular, Lenorovitz shrugged off comments from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who said members of the government had indeed recommended that the station be left to the mercies of gravity.
"The deputy prime minister who was down in India -- who wasn't at that meeting -- took a different interpretation and said these guys tried to deorbit the Mir," he told SPACE.com.
To prevent future misunderstandings, MirCorp President Andrew Eddy is currently engaged in setting up comprehensive meetings with Russian officials.
"We are making sure that MirCorp briefs all the Russian government people so that they will understand," Lenorovitz said.
Deep enough pockets?
Meanwhile, the fact remains that it will cost about $200 million to keep Mir flying through 2001. If that money does not come from the Russian government, MirCorp -- which aims to make money by diverting commercial and private traffic to the aging space station -- may find itself having to raise it on its own.
Existing backers remain undeterred, at least publicly. Two of the company's key investors, Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria and Walt Anderson, came forward Tuesday to reaffirm their ongoing support for the company and, as Kathuria said in a statement, its "extremely positive" long-term business prospects.
Lenorovitz expects revenue from tourism and other "non-traditional" uses of the station to play a larger part in funding Mir's operations in the future. In addition, Mircorp is aggressively seeking outside investors.
"We feel that as people like the James Camerons, the Dennis Titos, the Mark Burnetts step up, that will spur other people" to pay to use the station for entertainment purposes, he told SPACE.com
Tito still on tap
MirCorp's confidence that Mir will remain viable clears up recent doubts about the company's ability to achieve its plans to participate in the highly touted television project Destination Mir, as well as allow investment tycoon Dennis Tito to become the first "space tourist."
Tito reportedly
advertisement
